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Elderly parents

Oxygen accident in care home

27 replies

serengelly · 19/02/2015 19:53

After 3 years of crises and 3 months in hospital, social services finally agreed my mum could go into residential care, much to my relief. She has dementia, copd and poor sight and mobility. She is on oxygen full time since admission to hospital in November. She was a heavy smoker but was obviously unable to smoke in hospital . I was told to find a home, which I did, and she moved in within a week.
Tuesday night I get a call to say there's been an accident and she's in hospital. She has severe facial burns and remains in burns unit. The home say she was smoking....though she had no access to cigarettes.
Hospital has been great today and put a POVA on her records. In short....we have no way of knowing what happened...and home have 'expelled' her.
What do I do now? Not looking for litigation, but surely something's wrong in this scenario? Thanks.

OP posts:
Clobbered · 19/02/2015 20:13

You surely wouldn't want her to go back to somewhere that had allowed this to happen?
Clearly something went badly wrong. I'd wait and see how she gets on with the recovery from the burns. It will likely take quite a while and I doubt you will need to make any decision in the immediate future.
Clearly something went badly wrong. I'd have thought the most likely scenario is that she blagged a cigarette from another resident or visitor who had no idea how dangerous it would be.

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 19/02/2015 20:02

Oh god, how awfulSad

I'm not clear about POVA's but I'm thinking that may mean the home will be investigated formally as to how this was able to happen.

I think the first port of call would be to talk to the hospital and find out what they are planning to do with regards to the accident.

I guess you could make a formal complaint to the CQC too. They regulate and inspect care facilities.

Thinking of youThanks